Build Engine Games

[Anonymous No.1554690]

Discuss games made in Ken Silverman's Build engine! Like this one! It's an early version of Shadow Warrior back when it was a more serious FPS set in Feudal Japan! Exclamation!

[Anonymous No.1554692]

Here's another picture from the same build.

[Anonymous No.1554725]

yeehaw

[Anonymous No.1554750]

Shadow Warrior is GOAT tier
>>1554725 on the other hand is not quite

[Gor No.1554753]

>>1554690
So what was eventually removed from SW? I have SW 3D, but have yet to play more than the first level.

[Anonymous No.1554774]

>>1554753
Pretty much almost everything was reconstructed from the ground up after Duke Nukem 3D got popular. New weapons, new protagonist, new everything

[Anonymous No.1554860]

Is this an engine people can still make games with?

[Anonymous No.1554863]

Can you still download and make games with this engine?

[Anonymous No.1554892]

>>1554860
>>1554863
eduke is basically the same thing but more updated and GPL'd
http://eduke32.com

There's a guy called zykoveddy that makes games with it to this day and they play fine so it's definitely something you can do

[Anonymous No.1554908]

>>1554690
Has this build ever been leaked?

>>1554863
>>1554860
The source codes for Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior have been out there for years now, so nothing but your own level of skill and motivation is stopping you from having a go at it.

[Anonymous No.1554990]

I emailed Ken Silverman, the maker of this engine. I asked him if he was interested with the oculus, he said no. I asked him if he was interested in emscripten or crossbridge, he said no. And I asked him if he was interested in getting more people to play Ken's Labyrinth via Steam or GOG, and he said no.

[Anonymous No.1555017]

Ken silverman that nigga living the dream.

About 10 years ago I emailed him and he gave me C source code to some of his earlier voxel engines. My mind was blown

[Anonymous No.1555134]

>>1554990
I feel pretty bad for ken. He's obviously extremely talented but was completely demoralized when Quake came out.

I read some recent-ish interviews with him and they are so fucking depressing.

[Anonymous No.1555141]

>>1554908
I don't know if it has, but it seems like it will be soon... possibly!

http://forums.duke4.net/topic/7366-duke3d-sw-earlyalphabetagold-material/

[Anonymous No.1555162]

>>1555134
Care to post them?

[Anonymous No.1555184]

>>1555134
>>1555134
I just read a recent interview after your mention of modern day Ken.

My gosh, I feel sorry for him. It seems like he was destined for great things but now he just sounds depressed, bitter, and self loathing, fiddling with his own projects while working for his dad. I'm sure he still does great stuff, but for some reason that interview gives me the impression that he kinda crashed or something, like he feels the Ken Silverman they are asking about is dead and the current one is irritated by people asking about him. Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

[Anonymous No.1555203]

>>1555184
There was a previous thread discussing how he sort of went into a cyst when mlook games really started propagating, and by himself he couldn't keep up with the game engines that different teams were making. Kind of a downer.

[Anonymous No.1555206]

>>1555184
He sounds like he's got some serious issues. In one of them he mentions that carmack wanted him to work at id with him in the late 2000s and he turned it down since he didn't want to move to texas.

Crazy he made the build engine as a teenager.

[Anonymous No.1555291]

>>1555206
Reminds me of that guy that made the full Doom conversion to Aliens (probably the best Alien/Marine game still) and was offered a gaming job. Turned it down to go to school to be an account or some shit like that.

[Anonymous No.1555295]

>>1554892
I'm checking out their stuff. Is there a good tutorial out there for starting developing and modding on this?

[NESfag No.1555693]

>>1554750
Redneck Rampage definitly has quite a lot of flaws; but it's still worth playing due to a lot of maps being really really good (but sadly even some maps aren't very good).

On the other hand, Suckin'Grits on Route 66 (the add on to redneck rampage made by Sunstorm Interactive who also did among other things the best add ons for Duke3D and Blood) has all good levels and tried to hide and reduce the flaws of the original game as much as possible.
And Redneck Rampage Rides Again, the sequel, still made using the Build Engine; is REALLY GREAT and is one of the two most underrated Build games with Powerslave.

>>1554892
There is also good standalone oldschool style FPS made based on duke3D and eduke32 like AMC TC and WGRealms2; and of course the Duke3D community is still very active (I started a community episode project that will get released in a month)

>>1555184
Ken Silverman probably knows that Build is still a lot of people favourite engine and that some of them still work on it

[Anonymous No.1556316]

Ken sent me another reply, maybe we'll get him interested in re-releasing Ken's Labirynth. He also appears to have destroyed the oculus rift in one sentence and been working on a set of VR goggles.

[Anonymous No.1556335]

>>1556316
Oculus Rift status: #rekt

His snark is killing me.

[Anonymous No.1556647]

>>1556316
Alright at least Ken is doing SOMETHING

[Anonymous No.1556681]

>>1556316
holy shit i just went to check out that voxiebox thing and that is amazing! It would be nice to see arcades make a return with simple games built on that. Its got this cool retrofuturistic feel to it.

[Anonymous No.1556683]

>>1554690
>>1554692
Good thing they changed it. That looks pretty rough. I'm not sure how I feel about the mood change though. It really didn't need to be Duke Nukem 3D-2 if they didn't want it to be.

[Anonymous No.1556686]

>>1554753
Considering how fun and well made the first level is, I'm a little baffled why you would stop there.

[Anonymous No.1556707]

>>1554725

HOLD ON TO YA BUTT!!

[Anonymous No.1556919]

>>1556316
Ohhhh fuck.

[Anonymous No.1558548]

BUILD engine a shit.

NESfag a shit.

This board a shit.

[Anonymous No.1558764]

Here's a link to his interview, for those interested.

http://videogamepotpourri.blogspot
.com/2012/05/interview-with-ken-silverman.html

[Anonymous No.1558812]

>>1555141
Omfg this is all looking exciting

[Anonymous No.1558816]

>>1558812
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwEqS1UHJxk

Check this crazy shit out

[Anonymous No.1558830]

There's these invisible enemies in Shadow Warrior that are absolute bullshit. I will be more than halfway past a level and they kill you in one hit even with 100 health (playing on difficulty 3 out of 4, I don't like the respawning enemies on the highest difficulty)

Still having a blast though. What a fantastic game. Can't wait to play the two expansions and then Blood which I have NEVER played! Already played a TON of Duke 3D.

The 90s really did have the best shooters. I still like some of the stuff that came after though, like Shadow of Chernobyl and of course Half-Life 2 spawned a bunch of neat mods. Picture unrelated.

[Anonymous No.1558853]

>>1558816
Is this what is known as "Lameduke?"

[Anonymous No.1558864]

>>1558853
This is a later unreleased (as of yet) build of Duke3D which features PIG COPS and other stuff like did you see that new cinema thing from an old screenshot? Yeah.

[Anonymous No.1558871]

>>1558830
The shadow ninjas are pretty bullshit, but both you and them have insanely powerful weapons. So fight those hording tendencies and unleash on them with your better equipment. Maybe not your BEST of your best, even I have trouble willingly firing off my nuke, but rockets, grenades, guardian heads, your upper-tier weapons are perfect for killing those bastards quickly and minimizing the risk to your own life.

There's a lot of indirect means of killing dangerous enemies too. So learn those. Since death can come so much faster than it did in Duke 3D.

[Anonymous No.1558879]

>>1558830
W-work safe board, p-please.

[Anonymous No.1559052]

>>1558871

Believe me the moment I get Rail Rods I use them, even on simple soldiers. The way they instantly blow up is too satisfying for me not to. But the grenade launcher and missile launcher cause me to kill myself at least once per level, so I stick to using the grenade launcher to clear rooms I haven't been into and the missile launcher only in wide open areas. The nuke I definitely use for fun but it's hard to find a suitable area. Does it actually do more damage to the bosses?

I love how I actually use most of the items and arsenal as opposed to Duke 3D where I often neglected the Freezethrower, Holoduke, Steroids (only used them on bosses), and the like. Shadow Warrior seems more balanced.

>>1558879

Sorry bro, here is a more work-safe qt.

[NESfag No.1559082]

>>1559052
The holoduke in Duke3D is a deathmatch item. It doesn't have any use in sp. The steroids however can be useful to quickly get out of a dangerous situation and of course, they get you back to normal size when you're shrunk. Some usermaps also make good use of steroids and jeptack. Few maps actually use the protective boots as a mandatory or at least useful items, they're only mandatory in the Boss level of episode 4 and useful in very few duke maps. Even usermaps underuse the boots (but in a map I finishing making not only ago which will be the secret map of the Duke Hard community episode which will be released in a month, I made a corridor with electrified water that kills you really quickly and you need to have the boots to go through it).

Items in shadow warrior are indeed a lot more useful, they're great both in SP and in DM. You only REALLY realize how great items are if you play the game by doing a katana/stars start on each map (that is to say, not to keep your gear bewteen each level which just makes you run through everything with max ammo/item on everything after only a few levels, even on skill 3).
When doing katana/stars map starts, ammo/weapons are more scarce, so every item is useful : throw a gas grenade in a room full of enemies; or use the item that makes you semi invisible to go sneak on your enemies and slash them with your katana; etc

as for the nuke, even against bosses it's not very useful because the area is so small it just ends up killing you. There is very few moments in the game in which you can really use it and when it's really useful

[NESfag No.1559090]

>>1559082
It would be fun if enemies would actually think the holoduke IS duke and shoot it at least for a few seconds. I don't even think any mod did that either.

[Anonymous No.1559103]

>>1559090

You mean they don't do that?

What the hell, all this time I thought that was what it was used for. There's even secret areas with the holoduke as a reward for exploration, so you would think it would have SOME use.

[NESfag No.1559123]

>>1559103
Wow. I just tested it really quickly and it seems that the holoduke DOES have some effect on enemies indeed; it seems that if you let the holoduke on around enemies and go away, the enemies will remain around the holoduke (without shooting though) instead of following you. It's not much but it's actually SOMETHING.
All this time I thought it had zero effect on them and i've played hundreds of duke usermaps and even built around 7 single player maps...

[Anonymous No.1559389]

I always wanted to do like a full conversion mod for Doom or Duke, never had an idea of where to start with that type of thing.

[Anonymous No.1559392]

>>1559123
you didn't know? It's very primitive and it doesn't work on the one enemy it would be useful for (the kamikaze drone) but if you're tight on everything but pipebombs it's great for making enemies all cluster together into one group.

[Anonymous No.1559470]

>>1554860
Duke Nukem 3D shipped with mod and level building tools. Given it was the 90's, it everything was painfully clunky to use.

There are probably better tools out today.

[Anonymous No.1559482]

How did Capstone beat 3D Realms to the market with the Build Engine in TekWar? I thought Crapstone always used last-gen engines.

[Anonymous No.1559605]

>>1556316
That's neat. I wonder if he knows he's on /vr/ now.

[Anonymous No.1559616]

>>1558830

>Bitching about the Shadow ninjas
>not bitching about the Culturist from Blood

I swear the motherucking tommy gun culturist are the worse, still nothing beats the Vixen from Redneck rampage as the most OP enemy in any build game

[Anonymous No.1559637]

>>1559616
He just said he hasn't played Blood yet.

But yeah, fucking cultists.

[Anonymous No.1559714]

>>1559082
>>1559090
>>1559103
>>1559123
>>1559392
>>1559052

>tfw I didn't know protozoids eat bodies until today
>after two hard months I finish Duke nukem in Damn Im good

WHY NOBODY TOLD ME

[Anonymous No.1559943]

>>1559714
Not just bodies. They'll eat living aliens, too. Just not Octabrains or drones.

[Anonymous No.1559963]

>>1559714
It took you two months to complete Duke on DIG?

Holy shit this board is so fucking casual.

[Anonymous No.1559969]

>>1559963
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he has a day job and a life.

[Anonymous No.1559981]

>>1559969
And other games to play. And maybe another hobby besides video games.

[Anonymous No.1560097]

What is the better expansion, Twin Dragon or Wanton Destruction?

I liked SW a lot but not sure I want to play TWO more episodes...

[Anonymous No.1560167]

>>1560097
Twin Dragon, though Wanton Destruction has its moments

[Anonymous No.1560179]

>>1560167
Agreed. There's really nothing wrong with Wanton Destruction. It's solid level design, just not especially exciting.

[NESfag No.1560793]

>>1560097
I tend to like WD a bit more because I'm a fanboy of Sunstorm Interactive, but both are really good.
You should play both though, there is never enough SW. If you play Twin Dragon using Redux, make sure to turn off voxels in levels with mines because do to a glitch their voxels are invisible which they should be visible.

>>1559714
I see what you mean; the holoduke could be very useful when playing in Damn I'm Good and if you intend to kill every monster for good (that is to say, make their bodies explode so that they don't respawn). I did that once and it was a lot of fun but I had to use plenty of tricks to save explosive ammo in order to destroy all bodies, I'd use other enemies to explode the bodies like Commander's rockets or drones; or i would try to make a lot of enemies die all in one place in order to destroy all their bodies with a single explosive, etc. The holoduke would have been useful for that.

>>1559470
Yes there are. You can do anything you want with eduke32 given you know what you're doing. You can use hi-res textures, md3 3D models, dynamic lights, and they're working on switching from con coding to lua coding.
One guy made a (basic) top spaceshooter. Someone else made a 3D Sonic platformer, etc

[Anonymous No.1560845]

>>1559981
so pretty much confirming that he's a casual? Why reply faggot?

>>1559969
>hurrr get a life xD
Everybody over 18 that's not in college has a job. 2 months to complete Duke on DIG is just utterly pathetic.

[Anonymous No.1561136]

>>1560845
You seem to have stumbled onto the wrong board.

>>>/v/

[Anonymous No.1561457]

>>1559470
One of my friends did a load of mapping with that shit, apparently it was preferential over a load of other engines at the time because of some weird trick where you could have impossible rooms inside rooms inside rooms that didn't fuck itself sideways.

[Anonymous No.1561936]

>>1561457
with sector stacking you could make 720 degree rooms so it would be like 2 full circles before it started looping again some pretty amazing physics breaking shit.

[Don Rumata !!rYqzYYFAejo No.1562692]

>>1559616
>>1559637
I've been playing through Blood for the first time, and one thing that sticks out is how the opening shareware maps handle Cultists compared to the first registered map. E2M1 gives curious players a shaded Voodoo Doll that, from a distance, lets them kill a Cultist or Fanatic with 4 stabs. This takes longer than a double-barrel blast to the face, and it's ammo-expensive for sure, but being able to flinch these guys while conserving other ammo is a godsend. Cultists and Fanatics have quicker firing reaction than Pigcops and even Ninjas, meaning that any advance with a pitchfork or shotgun can lead to a quick death. And when I'm trying to conserve TNT for zombie groups, the most viable option remaining are flares, which take enough time to make encounters tedious.

Really, the Voodoo Doll and the Tommy Gun make these Sergeant/Chaingunner-likes easier to deal with, though still challenging foes with advanced AI. E1M2 and E1M3, because they both lack the cover options in the opening map and forget to offer new players something to stun the guys with, are fucking frustrating, even when you know how to deal with crouching Cultists and far-off Fanatics. The nearly-instant hitscan attacks do more damage than Sergeants range around; if you run out of ammo, which can happen if you're having trouble finding secrets, good luck using melee on 'em. I'd say the shareware episode only gets better after getting the Tommy Gun, since its alt-fire grants players widespread stunlock at the price of ammo, which is plentiful.

In short, a couple of Blood's early maps give players undue reason to dislike the bread-and-butter mooks they'll have more fun with later.

>>1559714
You should watch the Alfonzo stream where Tarnsman has a Protozoid freakout.

[Anonymous No.1562715]

>>1554725
Seriously, though. Fuck that level.

[Anonymous No.1562752]

>>1559082
>use the item that makes you semi invisible to go sneak on your enemies and slash them with your katana
Doesn't that power up your fists? Whenever I went invisible, the punches make red shockwaves and did loadsa damage.

[Anonymous No.1562763]

>>1559090
War of Attrition turned Holodukes into upgradeable Holobots that would attack things for you.

[Anonymous No.1562929]

>>1559392
you cant even understand how much I hate those fucking drones
they take like thirty million shots and are fucking EVERYWHERE in lunar apocalypse

[Anonymous No.1562949]

>>1559082
>>1555693
How do Redneck Rampage levels play from a pistol start? I prefer to play that way when I know the mappers had it in mind, as they clearly did for Duke and Shadow Warrior. I actually thought SW was too easy even doing it that way; it throws ammo at you all the time. Blood doesn't seem to have it in mind most of the time, but the Sunstorm expansion definitely does.

So yeah, what about RR? I would guess the Sunstorm levels play well that way at least.

[Anonymous No.1562958]

How about a build engine game set in ancient Egypt and named after an Iron Maiden track?

[Anonymous No.1562964]

I used to make maps for Duke 3D.

The thing is, build/mapster are very tedious editors to work with. Lots of fiddling with sprites, constant minute texture aligning/scaling, and flipping between 3D/2D mode to get things right. And shit gets even more aggravating if you're working in a tight area with lots of overlapping sectors.
I've started lots of maps, but never finished a single one.

[Anonymous No.1563215]

>>1562964
Most finished user made maps suck anyways. So few people understand proper scale. Duke will be standing next to a counter or chair sprite he can't even see over. Duke is not supposed to be a dwarf.

[Anonymous No.1563313]

>>1562692
I just started playing through Blood for the first time as well and I find it insanely more difficult than Duke or SW. Although I love the look and theme of the levels, the cultists really make it hard to enjoy anything to the degree I enjoyed Duke or SW. When you open a door and it's a just a big square room full of 10 cultists who upon seeing you, fire and kill you instantly, its hard to say that is fair level design.

[Anonymous No.1563326]

>>1563313
dynamite mah boi

the one thing I noticed about blood is you really have to use your weapons in the right places. Douk had a little bit of that but lo wang on the other hand is a walking death machine.

[NESfag No.1563858]

>>1562763
Are you trying to showcase to me the merits of a mod that used some of my maps without even asking or telling me even though I'm right there ? Maps that were made as a tribute to classic Duke3D and playing them with a gameplay mod completely ruins the whole point of what they are?

Hmm, yes you are. Let me tell you, War of Attrition is the Brutal Doom of Duke3D, it takes everything that makes Duke3D gameplay good, puts all that into the trash, and replaces it with a thousand over the top effects. There is no balance whatsover into the gameplay as you're a running powerhouse until you come accross a random overpowered mini boss. All the new effects, enemies with different palettes and different super powers, and new weapons, also completely ruin any sense of visual style the game had. Did I mention the "upgrades" elements are the antithesis of classic FPS gameplay?

So okay, it has that holoduke, but considering how awful the whole thing is, I'm not going to play that just for the holoduke; and if you ask me, having the holoduke go around and shoot for you is too much; at best it could do a few sidesteps and backtrack and enemies could try to shoot at it.

>>1562949
I don't know but, considering that without doing pistol start, on skill 4, I was constantly full on everything; i'd say that if you play on skill 3 pistol start is probably alright; but I can't tell for sure; and the problem is that if you do pistol start there are moments when you're gonna find yourself against vixens without ammo for the 2 weapons that are the best against them, and that is going to piss you off.
Anyway the expansion by Sunstorm is very solid and it tries to lower and hide the flaws of the original game as possible. The sequel, Rides Again, is a fantastic game and is one of the 2 most underrated Build games alongside this >>1562958 and its fantastic level design.

>>1563215
This stopped being the case in what, 1998? 1999? Most maps being made in the last10-15 years are good.

[NESfag No.1563918]

>>1562964
>The thing is, build/mapster are very tedious editors to work with. Lots of fiddling with sprites, constant minute texture aligning/scaling, and flipping between 3D/2D mode to get things right.

You probably come from Doom mapping? I myself, just did the contrary. I'm a duke3D mapper and I started making a Doom map; and I was baffled by the limits of the original Doom engine.... can't shrink/enlarge textures, can't independently align top/bottom textures, can't move ceiling/floors textures (so if you want to make a ceiling light, or a platform/elevator, you have to make them accordingly to how the textures applies to the grid....), can't use ceiling/floor textures for walls and vice versa; can't shade walls independantly as it's only sector shading, etc etc
Just holy shit that's very limiting. But at least, it does makes thing simpler since you don't have much choice.

Now I do understand though why so many Doom wads use custom textures while in the classic Duke3D mapping community, that is almost a forbidden unspoken rule for several reasons. It's because not only Doom has less textures to choose from, but you also can't do much with them! In Duke you can even use sprites to textures walls if you want to, if you're smart enough you could build pretty much any theme with the original Duke3D custom textures if you use those textures in a smart way; and that is the basis of Duke3D mapping but something that simply can't be done in Doom.

So yes, Duke3D mapping takes a little more time than Doom mapping, but that is because you have a LOT more freedom; but mapster32 made things a lot more comfortable.
As for your complains, mapster32 has added TONS of small features that makes mapping simpler and more comfortable, it's really night&day with the original Build mapping program.

[Anonymous No.1563998]

>>1563313
You have to play Blood much more evasively than you do pretty much any other shooter. Even opening a door, for instance, ideally you don't just open it standing stationary - you open it with a shotty or tommy gun equipped with your finger on the trigger moving backwards so that you're ready to both evade fire and blast a cultist immediately. Furthermore, like the other anon said, you really have to mix up your weapon use. This is not only for ammo management, which is very important, but also because of weapon functionality. Tommy Gun, for instance, is a really good Cultist suppressor. While you're nailing one with it, he'll be unable to shoot you back while eating the bullets. Furthermore you need to utilise secondary fire modes of weapons. Secondary flare, for instance, is one of the most useful things you have at your disposal. If you come across a group of cultists around a corner, a quick strafe into view, secondary flare, and then strafe out will fuck them all up. Napalm launcher will do the same job. Whereas in Doom/Duke/SW you would have simply strafed around with your shotgun and shot up the standard enemies, in Blood you have to rely far more on evasive techniques and smarter use of weaponry. You need to absolutely dominate cultists by making them flinch and building your gameplay around that.

Your approach is very important. You don't just run into a room in Blood guns blazing; you have to intelligently manoeuvre yourself towards it from the onset, taking into account your field of view and smartly checking corners, piveting yourself and peaking about them. Crouching helps a lot and is something you should be incorporating all the time. And if you do get shot, then move the fuck out of the way. You should always be ready to back out of enemy fire.

[Anonymous No.1564002]

>>1563998 continued

I made some playthroughs of Blood a while ago. Here's a link to episode 5:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYq82ZL_5zg

I made these mainly to show people who don't understand Blood (and call Cultists 'bad design') how to play the game. If you watch the map starting at 59:23, that is literally the first time I ever played that hidden map in my life. I looked on youtube how to find the hidden level and then I recorded the playthrough so that my first gameplay instance of it was captured. Therefore, if you see my approach to that map in particular, you should be able to understand how to play the game and how different it is from the other 2.5D FPS's.

[Anonymous No.1564056]

>>1559969

Well moving a whole library (data, users and all the books) takes a shitload of time, good thing I made mad dosh out of it and now I can rest for half a year with no problem in money.

Took me 2 months because I used to play one level for an hour and then going back to sleep, so when I was done, I sit down, git gud and finish all ep in one long run (because Im pretty shitty in dn3d I won't deny it)

Now that Im free I been playing Blood 2.....yeah is not a worthy second title of the series, is pretty annoying most of the time and everything is a big damage sponge, you have to carry the sniper rifle all the time or you are good as dead

>>1563313

What >>1563326 >>1563998 says. Blood is all about good weapon use, still Im the only one who feels ep 4 is rush as fuck? Hell, all the original ep have some "theme" going on but 4 feels like a big pile of random maps. While the levels are short they are pretty good for the most part.

[NESfag No.1564060]

>>1564056
>still Im the only one who feels ep 4 is rush as fuck? Hell, all the original ep have some "theme" going on but 4 feels like a big pile of random maps. While the levels are short they are pretty good for the most part.

I love episode 4; it's true that maps don't have themes, basically, all other maps they had done had some kind of "realistic theme" but almost all maps of episode 4 don't. Instead they are completely conceptual and are based on pure level design ideas, with layouts and effects they couldn't do with more "realistic" places. I love it for that, it's exactly the kind of unrealistic FPS level design characterisc of FPS of the early to mid 90's; they're definitly great levels. Powerslave kinda did that too.

[NESfag No.1564064]

>>1554690
Oh boy they are finding some gold in those alpha and betas zips

[Anonymous No.1564087]

>>1564056
I really can't rank the episodes concretely. 2, 3, 4 and 5 are all about equal to me for different reasons. In terms of themes, 2 is the most stand-out one for me with its ice and snow but unfortunately it doesn't have all the weapons and enemies that the later episodes have. It lacks fire dogs and tesla canon, for instance. But man it has some amazing levels. 2-6 (The Cold Rush) is just so based with its platforming elements.

If I absolutely had to just pick one though, I'd say episode 5 is probably my favourite. It was the expansion episode and to me it always felt like Doom II felt to Doom. They gave some new enemies, the levels were generally bigger and they hugely increased the kill count which I love. It does have one pretty bad map though; that one being 'The Ruined Temple' which is kind of a mess, but still fun to navigate. However it also had 5-2, 5-3, and 5-4 (5-4 being Aqueducts, the stand-out) which are all really fucking good.

I gotta say though, Episode 4 for me probably did have the most solid general level design in the game. Levels like Fire And Brimstone and The Ganglion Depths were really amazing.

As I said I like episodes 2, 3, 4 and 5 about equal, but I can conclusively say I prefer them to the first episode. That doesn't mean I don't love episode 1, of course I do, but I much prefer the others. This opinion isn't heard very much I guess since the first episode is the most 'iconic', which the train level and carnival and stuff. People see the first episode as the most detailed and I'd agree with that, but I don't like its layout as much as the other ones. It's a bit too corridor-y compared to the other episodes, which have far more variety in their design and open spaces. Plus the other episodes have more weapons and enemies. I reiterate that I love the first episode, and of course it's smaller, relatively more 'intimate' nature adds to the game's variety, but I simply prefer the other episodes for the aforementioned reasons.

[Anonymous No.1564095]

>>1563998
Thanks for posting this. Using some of the techniques you described, I finished episode 1 and feel like I've gotten down everything to point where it isn't so difficult anymore. Blood truly is unique from a gameplay perspective and I think my problem probably was that I was just coming off of beating Duke 3D and was trying to play Blood in a similar fashion.
How would everyone rate the Blood episodes?
And are the expansion episodes just as good/worth playing?

[Anonymous No.1564107]

>>1564095
My favorite Blood episode overall is probably the Cryptic Passage expansion. I think it's the most consistent in quality. All of the other episodes have about half maps that I really like, and half that are just okay. I tend to not like the Blood maps that are in more industrial, factory-like places, but that's just personal preference. E4 is probably my least favorite overall (not for that reason) but it still has a couple maps that are really good, and it's hard to tell if by that point I was just feeling a little burnt out on Blood.

On the subject of tactics, I would say that mastering dynamite is key. At some point, switching to dynamite and getting the proper timing/distance of a quick throw should be almost second nature.

[Anonymous No.1564112]

>>1564095
No problem man, glad to help. I rank the episodes as I stated here >>1564087. They're all really really great and people will like different ones for different reasons.

>And are the expansion episodes just as good/worth playing?
Well, I personally found Cryptic Passage to be kinda boring and uninspired compared to the main game but that's just me. NESfag and others seem to love it though. It's definitely must-play if you're a Blood fan.

Episode 5 from Blood is the expansion pack episode from the original Blood developers and as I said that's probably my favourite overall (albeit marginally).

But dude, something that is absolutely guaranteed to rock your world if you're a fan of Blood is this fan made mod called 'Death Wish'. I wholeheartedly recommend this to you. I played it about six months ago and it was the best single player FPS experience I've had in over a decade, no joke. In fact, a lot of it is even better than the actual Blood game. The author's imagination really holds no bounds and it's truly amazing what he's managed to do with Blood's assets alone (as Blood's source code was never released, he can't add anything new to it). Over 30 levels in three episodes, and jesus christ this guy has done an amazing job. Just play this fucking mod. Trust me.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/death-wish-for-blood

[Anonymous No.1564116]

>>1559082
>The holoduke in Duke3D is a deathmatch item. It doesn't have any use in sp
Worked for me, all enemies seem to wander towards HoloDuke and go into full retard mod, but Octabrains actually shoot at hologram and it works against them pretty gud.

[Anonymous No.1564137]

>>1564116
Yeah I used Holoduke occasionally to lure enemies as well... particularly that one part in the second episode that has three of those episode 1 bosses up in some room.

[Don Rumata !!rYqzYYFAejo No.1564140]

>>1563313
Looks like I've been beaten to, but my two cents: be ready for anything. Like in Dook, it's best to have multiple pools ready for a map than to splurge on one weapon too much and then find you needed that for the next map's opening. This isn't System Shock 2 where you'd need to use different ammo types; instead, having enough ammo for alt-fires is important.

I was concerned at first that Blood would play more like a cover shooter than a 3D Realms FPS, for example. But that was disproven the moment I hit E1M4, which lets crafty players jump from the boardwalk to behind the ticket booth, upon which the playstyles seem to open up. Props to you guys for these posts. I feel genuinely vindicated in getting past the initial hurdle of difficulty Blood present.

[Anonymous No.1564347]

BUILD engine FPS's are the GOATs.

[Anonymous No.1565683]

>>1563918
Any tips on how to get started in Doom and Duke content? Where to get tools or maybe a video or something?

Working on learning some game design at the moment and this seems like a great way to learn good design before rather than after making something from the ground up.

[Anonymous No.1565763]

>>1562958
>tfw the closest thing you'll ever get to a port of this is playing it on DOSBox.

Same problem as Blood, but worse.

[Anonymous No.1565953]

>>1564064
I always like the idea of voxels but they were never used much, even SW and Blood used them sparingly

If you've ever tried the build source code base game from Ken's site, theres a Voxel Duke Nukem, or at least a reasonable facimile

[Anonymous No.1566015]

>>1564064
That's a weird ass shotgun.

[Anonymous No.1566294]

>>1562752
yeah, it does. I never knew about it until I saw someone mention it here on 4chan. It's a really powerful attack as well. pretty cool that they added some more functionality to it so it's useful in SP mode.

Too bad the caltrops and the flashbombs are still fairly useless (I don't know if the flashbangs even do anything)

[Anonymous No.1566297]

>>1562929
when I was working on the AMC TC I contemplated creating a research project that automatically EMPs any that fly close by. I never really use them much though since fighting them is a bit of a pain if you have no accurate weapons since the fuckers actually dodge projectiles.

[Anonymous No.1566305]

>>1564112
Deathwish is fucking amazing, seconding this. The maps are insanely detailed and do great things with a game that doesn't have much modding support at all. The maps are jaw-dropping and have all kinds of things in them.

[Anonymous No.1567863]

Finished Ep2 of Blood and man was it awesome. I feel that it was an much stronger set of levels than Ep1. Bring on Ep3!

Also, here is a screen of the first map made for Duke Nukem 3D. Cool shit.

[Anonymous No.1567930]

>>1558764
>that interview
that was goddam depressing, and too bad he didn't get involved in AoS

like he said, he just lacks ambition

[Anonymous No.1568050]

>>1554990
>Do you want to do anything at all with the body of work you are known for?
>Do you want to do anything, anything at all that means interacting with the current industry or even the generations of gamers that have seen your work?
>DO YOU WANT TO EXHALE CARBON DIOXIDE AND THEN INHALE OXYGEN TO LIVE FOR ANOTHER TWO MINUTES?

Man, I knew people who stopped kidney dialysis who were more upbeat than this guy.

[Anonymous No.1568401]

I've played Duke, SW, and Blood. Haven't played RNR yet. Hope it goes on sale.

[NESfag No.1568535]

>>1568401
You mean Redneck Rampage? 6$ on gog with the first game + its expansion + the sequel is totally worth it.

Like I said the first game has some issues :
- issues with keys and locked doors : keys are too small, all look the same, and some of the maps have them semi-hidden so you have to pay attention to find them; locked doors aren't recognizable and when you use a key it doesn't even tell you you used one, so if you open a locked door AFTER gettnig the key you wouldn't even know it was locked ; also sometimes it can be a little hard to tell what a button does
-some enemies are a bit glitchy. The dogs behave really weird and can bite you through stuff; a type of aliens can shoot through walls from times to times; and there are some balance issue like the titty-gun attack of the vixen is really OP (make sure to use either the AK or the tit-gun itself against them).
-some levels aren't very interesting in terms of layout, mainly the "redneck town" ones.

But it still worth playing for the good levels it has. It also has great atmosphere, great graphics, great musics (even though they don't always fit the game well).
The add-on is really good. Every level is solid (nothing groundbreaking, but solid) and they often tried to reduce or hide the flaws I mentionned as well as possible.

The sequel, Rides Again In Arksansas, is FANTASTIC; very underrated, most underrated Build game alongside Powerslave/Exhumed (for its level design). They fixed most of the issues of the first game and some of the maps are some of the best stuff I've ever seen in Build like the refinery map (pic related). The bike levels are also really fun.

[Anonymous No.1569520]

Finished Ep3 of Blood. So far, this is by far my favorite episode. The Siege is such a cool level, and the Hospital literally gave me goosebumps. Those fucking ghosts in the "Assisted Suicide Ward" scared the shit out me.

Once I finished Blood, I'll probably jump right into Redneck Rampage. I figured I fight as well play all the build games back to back since I'm enjoying them so much.

[Anonymous No.1569538]

>>1568535
Haven't played Redneck Rampage since I was a kid, but seeing that screenshot gives me some bad memories about the color palette.
Everything seems to be brown and green in a dark but moonlit night. Doesn't seem so pleasent on the eyes.
But what the heck, Blood is mostly red and brown, and I've had tons of fun with that so it's probably all the weapons, sounds and enemies that make the game worthwhile.

[Anonymous No.1569542]

>>1563858

he mad

[Anonymous No.1569560]

>>1569520
Yeah... Ep3 was great. Spare Parts is a fucking beast of a level. Monster Bait is awesome, too. So huge and desolate.

[Anonymous No.1569570]

>>1568535
I've been playing RR and I'm really confused as to what you see in this game. I know you are a Duke mapper and I'm not seeing any of that cleverness in layouts, interconnectivity, etc. here. There's very little environmental interaction considering it's a Build game, you can't even destroy small objects like bottles.

>great graphics
The fact that almost every texture and sprite is photosourced or based on a 3D model makes it all look pretty cheap to me. I guess levels like the refinery and sewers look alright from a pure "passable resemblance to a real place" standpoint but it's a lot of drab corridors. Also I like how most of the weapons don't point toward the center of the screen.

I'm going to finish Rides Again but so far I think it still feels like a cheap amateur mod.

[Anonymous No.1569576]

>>1563858
>War of Attrition is the Brutal Doom of Duke3D, it takes everything that makes Duke3D gameplay good, puts all that into the trash, and replaces it with a thousand over the top effects
Fuck you. Brutal Doom tightened up the gameplay as well you faggot, that's the best part about it.

[Anonymous No.1569591]

>>1569538
>Blood is mostly red and brown
I actually think Blood has a nice palette. Sure, there's a lot of grey and brown (with splashes of red), but there are also of muted pinks, yellows, greens, and occasional touches of blue. It's more pastel than Duke is.

[Anonymous No.1569594]

>>1569576
>tighten up the graphics on level 3
Don't start this here.

[Anonymous No.1569630]

>>1569576
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Shoot and take cover tightening up the mechanics. Everyone point at this retard and laugh.

[Anonymous No.1570635]

>>1569630
whatever nerd it's just video games
maybe one day you'll see a vagina

[NESfag No.1570639]

>>1569570
Redneck Rampages graphics stand out for a Build game due to its high-res textures; and also uses some smart techniques to 'override' the limits of the engine, like shading directly implemented into the textures to pretend ambient lights (check the textures below the lightspots in this screenshot). Other Build games didn't do that.
In its levels it also uses a ton of "room over room"; overlapping sectors, more than any other Build game; to give a better feeling of 3D.

The room in this screenshot (it's from the Refinery map in Rides Again; sorry it's hard to have a good look at the room from only one screenshot due to how it is) has a very Y-axis oriented layout thanks to a smart mix of sector and sprite based platforms; with a couple of small elevators thrown in.
This is the kind of "3D" layout you would see in Quake, but not in commercial Build games. Sure, nowadays any good Duke3D amateur mapper could do a similar room; but it wouldn't look as good due to RR's way of having shading directly in the textures which make every part of this room; including the ones made of sprites; look good. All this together really helps hiding the limits of the Build engine; or rather, show what one can truely do with it.
This is spoken from a technical point of view alone but I also believed the layout in this level (and in others, this is just a good example) were really fun for gameplay.

[NESfag No.1570649]

>>1569538
>Everything seems to be brown and green in a dark but moonlit night.

Not everything is like that, but I get what you mean, most of it I guess. It personally didn't bother me. I'd say it's part of the visual style of the game; I thought it looked great, unlike Quake's brown&grey for instance

[Anonymous No.1572592]

Finished Blood! The end boss is pretty easy if you're stocked on Telsa cannon ammo, but then again I was only playing on Lightly Broiled.

I gotta laugh out of the Crystal Lake level, complete with the "ch ch ch" noises. I felt though that these levels in the last Ep were a bit disjointed in comparison to the others. The Crystal Lake level in particular comes out of no where and feels very random.

Oh and that Flesh level is fucking glorious. Fart noises everywhere.

Tim for the expansions!

[Anonymous No.1572602]

>>1572592
*Tesla
*Time
Jesus Christ typing on a tablet can be annoying.

[Anonymous No.1572797]

>>1554774
Man, I miss edgy 90's-early 00's design. It's amazing how not even that long ago people could think up stuff like this without even breaking a smile.

[Anonymous No.1572829]

>>1559605
he stopped replying to me, maybe lol

[Anonymous No.1572853]

>>1570649
>Quake's brown&grey for instance

Okay, now I know you are bullshitting, Quake didn't have any grey, only brown.

[Anonymous No.1573476]

>>1570639
Random mapping question: in some reviews of Duke maps, I see people praising or criticising the "trimwork." What's trimwork? I assume some kind of detailing around the edges of things, but what exactly?

[NESfag No.1573582]

>>1573476
> I assume some kind of detailing around the edges of things, but what exactly?

Yes that's it; it's basically putting a small texture (vertical, most of the time) in a corner, or at the end of a wall, or in between 2 textures.
It helps create a better sense of depth, more detailing (like, the wall has an 'end' to it).
For example, let's say you have two walls connected, and each have a different texture, (like, let's say you have an apartment wall and at its end, another wall at a 90° angle that's a canyon texture), trimming between these 2 walls will make things look much better or else it will look like neither texture start (or stops) in a realistic way; like instead of having the 2 walls look like they go 'into' each others (which they do), trimming will make them look disconnected.

[NESfag No.1573593]

>>1573582
Another example here, it's important to choose its trimming texture right. It should be something that glorifies the other textures but not something that the player should notice, it should 'belong'. Here they work like a link in between the middle metallic grey/black texture and the green texture on the left and right, the green textures has a horizontal white/grey part and another white/grey vertical trimming texture won't look out of place; plus that trimming texture is already sort of metallic (but less than the middle one) so it really is a middleground between both textures.

I should stop using my own maps as example. It's basic trimming and I'm making it sound like it's the greatest thing ever

[Anonymous No.1573750]

>All these people complaining about Cultists and Fanatics.
Shoot them with pretty much anything. They're garbage. Even the Zealots are pretty garbage because of their low fire rate.

Now the Ackolytes. Those guys are the fuckers.

[Anonymous No.1573762]

Both Duke and Shadow Warrior have a "remake" to adapt them to modern PCs.
Is Blood going to get one?

[Anonymous No.1573770]

>>1573762
Nothing good can ever happen to Blood.

[Anonymous No.1573773]

>>1573770
The one (recent) good thing that's happened to Blood is getting a release on GoG.

[Anonymous No.1574067]

>>1573582
>>1573593
Got it, that helps, thanks.